piracy news stories on Newser

Megaupload Data May Be Dumped This Week

Matt Cantor — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:27:01 CST

Megaupload users, be warned: Your data could be deleted starting Thursday. A wealth of personal photos and documents are stored by way of Megaupload, according to the company. That data has been inaccessible to users amid an investigation over pirated materials . Megaupload pays storage companies to house its users' data—...

FBI Closes File-Sharing Site; Anonymous Gets Revenge

John Johnson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:45:32 CST

After yesterday's SOPA protest comes more online piracy fun: The FBI today shut down the file-sharing site Megaupload.com and charged seven people with copyright infringement, reports the Wall Street Journal . Soon after, the hackers of Anonymous sought revenge by taking down the websites of the Justice Department, Universal Music,...

White House on SOPA: Don't Hurt 'Dynamic' Web

John Johnson — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 11:50:34 CST

The White House waded into the politically volatile territory of SOPA today, notes the Hill , and it sounds a little wary about the anti-piracy legislation. "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that...

Reddit's Next SOPA Target: Paul Ryan

Matt Cantor — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:59:01 CST

Behold the power of Reddit: Users fuming over Paul Ryan's alleged support of a controversial online piracy bill have prompted a clarification from the congressman. "Contrary to false reports, Congressman Paul Ryan is not a cosponsor of HR 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act," said a rep, though he stopped...

GoDaddy Braces for Today's Mass Exodus

Polly Davis Doig — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:45:14 CST

It's D-Day for GoDaddy: The domain king today faces a potentially devastating mass exodus over its brief support of the Stop Online Piracy Act , a controversial anti-piracy measure before Congress that's got First Amendment huggers hot under the collar. Seems GoDaddy's thumbs-up fell afoul of a single Reddit user, who...

US Drone Crashes in Seychelles

Rob Quinn — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:46:03 CST

Another American spy drone has crashed, but unlike the one in Iran , recovering this one posed no problem for the US military. The unmanned Reaper drone crashed at an airport in the Seychelles after a routine anti-piracy patrol over the Indian Ocean, the AP reports. Officials say the drone developed...

Online Piracy Bill Becomes Major Battle

Kevin Spak — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:20:05 CST

A battle is heating up on Capitol Hill over a controversial new bill targeting online piracy. Yesterday Google, Facebook, Yahoo and other web companies took out full-page newspaper ads railing against the House’s recently introduced Stop Online Piracy Act, even as supporters sung its praises at a hearing. “The problem...

Somali Pirates Free Danish Family

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 08:11:08 CDT

The Danish family held hostage by Somali pirates since February has been released and is safe. Jan Quist Johansen, his wife, their three children between the ages of 12 and 16, and two adult crew members are in “relatively good condition,” according to Denmark’s foreign ministry and the BBC , and...

Chinese Retail's Latest Rip-Off: Ikea

Tim Karan — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:20:05 CDT

Why create knock-offs of specific items when you can knock off an entire brand? A warehouse store in China called 11 Furniture has adopted almost everything from Ikea—from staged rooms and minimalist furniture designs to tiny pencils and an in-store restaurant. It's part of a rapidly growing market in...